Old Greek Stories eBook

Then Jupiter, in his turn, was angry, and ordered
Apollo to come before him and be punished for what
he had done. He took away his bow and arrows
and his wonderful lyre and all his beauty of form and
feature; and after that Jupiter clothed him in the
rags of a beggar and drove him down from the mountain,
and told him that he should never come back nor be
himself again until he had served some man a whole
year as a slave.

And so Apollo went out, alone and friendless, into
the world; and no one who saw him would have dreamed
that he was once the sun-bright Lord of the Silver
Bow.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS.

I. Theslave.

In a little town north of Delphi, and not very far
from the sea, there lived a young man named Admetus.
He was the ruler of the town, and hence was called
its king; but his kingdom was so small that he could
walk all round it in half a day. He knew the
name of every man and woman and child in the town,
and everybody loved him because he was so gentle and
kind and at the same time a king.

Late one day, when the rain was falling and the wind
was blowing cold from the mountains, a beggar came
to his door. The man was ragged and dirty and
half starved, and Admetus knew that he must have come
from some strange land, for in his own country no
one ever went hungry. So the kind king took him
into the house and fed him; and after the man had
bathed he gave him his own warm cloak, and bade the
servants make a place for him to sleep through the
night.

In the morning Admetus asked the poor man his name,
but he shook his head and made no answer. Then
Admetus asked him about his home and his country;
and all that the man would say was: “Make
me your slave, master! Make me your slave, and
let me serve you for a year.”

The young king did not need another servant.
But he saw that the poorest slave in the land was
better off than this man, and so he took pity on him.
“I will do as you ask,” he said. “I
will give you a home and food and clothing; and you
shall serve me and be my slave for one year.”

There was but little that the stranger knew how to
do, and so he was sent to the hills to take care of
the king’s sheep and goats. For a whole
year he tended the flocks, finding the greenest pastures
and the freshest water for them, and keeping the wolves
away. Admetus was very kind to him, as he was
to all his servants, and the food and clothing which
he gave him were of the best in the land. But
the stranger did not tell his name nor say anything
about his kindred or his home.

When a year and a day had passed, it so happened that
Admetus was walking out among the hills to see his
sheep. All at once the sound of music fell upon
his ear. It was no such music as shepherds play,
but sweeter and richer than any he had ever heard
before. He looked to see where the sound came
from. Ah! who was that sitting on the hilltop,
with the sheep around him listening to his music?
Surely it was not his shepherd?